Trials of the Mist
by Eternal Exile
Summary: A young ninja from Kirigakure finally takes his studies to the next level. But what awaits him in the land of the bloody mist?


Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Kishimoto is God!

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Genin exams were finally today of all days. It was the most rainy and gloomy of days and the mists were as prominent as ever. Kirigakure didn't false advertise. And it was really early in the morning, classes weren't even supposed to start for another hour. The crack of dawn had just barely gotten itself up in time for their testing. But Mizuki was already wide awake. He was just way too excited to have missed any part of the test. After all, he was graduating today, obviously.

He'd probably just have to show off a few jutsu, and demonstrate his fighting skills. Then, he'd have to swear loyalty to the village, and then he'd receive his headband. No sweat at all for Kirigakure's number one ninja-to-be. Mizuki grinned so widely that Jinto-sensei could see it a mile away, and would growl in hatred of the little punk. But after this, nobody could deny that Mizuki was a worthy ninja, capable of being the best. And maybe his big sis would stop calling him Yuki-chan. . .

He had been told to meet on the south side of the school with his test proctors, and to be ready for anything. Jinto had been especially sadistic-sounding when he gave Mizuki his instructions. And because of all the early morning stuff, he couldn't help out his sister before he left. Instead, he made her breakfast and left it by her bedside, with a little "Wish Me Luck!" note. With a small kiss to her forehead, he had bolted out the door, ready to make her proud.

The testing grounds were pretty straightforward, just an open "dock" area, surrounded by water. Jinto and one other proctor had him swim out to the platform and climb up the little ladder. The entire thing was covered in fog, so he could barely see anything on the other side. When he looked back, the proctors were both smiling, and neither smile looked very happy. It was like they were vultures awaiting their next corpse. They were going to get it too.

Jinto, as usual, yelled from the main village shore, "Hey, boy! You aren't here for fun, you're here for the exam. So wipe that damn goofy look off of your face, get serious, and get ready!" He growled, and went on with his explanation, "You need to prove that you are worthy of being a ninja here in the Village Hidden in the Mist. It's just a little one-on-one fight. The winner becomes a Genin, and the loser no longer matters. Got it? Now get to it!"

"Wha—?" Mizuki looked at Jinto fully confused. The sadistic look on his face told the whole story. His sensei was looking for blood, an entire fourteen-year-old's worth of it.

Looking down the platform and at his sudden enemy, everything changed. He was on one side, and Kisa was on the other, in her wheelchair. At first, he thought it was a trick of the mist. But when he felt his heart skip a beat, he knew it was no trick. She was his opponent for the test. And according to Jinto, he had to fight to the finish. So it was a knockout or a give up, possibly a ring out. But with that wheelchair, he didn't want her to drown.

"Hey, what's going on sis? Tell me why you're in here with me!" Mizuki's smile was done for. Having to fight his sister wasn't right at all. Not only was she disabled, she was his sister. And even if they did want to fight, she had been a Jounin, which meant she had some power jutsu at her disposal. The odds were entirely stacked against him. "Sis? What's wrong?"

"Look, Mizuki. . ." She never used his real name. It was always 'brother' or when she wanted to embarrass him, 'Yuki'. "This is the way you have to become a ninja here in Mist. You have to kill a friend you've grown up with. I had to do it too. It's the only way you can prove that you have the power to take the life of an enemy ninja."

"That's crazy!" He yelled, unable to keep his silence. "That's not right! How can I be expected to kill you? You're my sister!"

"Mizuki!" She looked at him sternly, silencing him. "What is rule number one of being a shinobi?"

Just like always, he answered, "You must be prepared to carry out your orders, no matter the consequences. No exceptions. . . But—!"

"No exceptions!" She cut him off without more than those two words. "Your orders are to kill me, now carry out your obligation to your home! Attack me with everything that you have, or I'll kill you instead!" Kisa pulled a pair of kunai from her sleeves, holding them in front of her in an X shape.

"Sister!" Was all he managed to get out before the pair of kunai sped towards him. Panicking, he leapt to the side, only dodging one. The other went into his upper thigh. And this was no illusion, she never used genjutsu. He was genuinely bleeding, with a kunai in his upper leg. His pain wasn't physical though, it was emotional.

The very idea his sister would attack him, without so much as an apology or a real explanation. . .

"I said, attack me with everything you have!" Another pair of kunai came from her sleeves and were again ready to throw.

"Kisa-chan. . ." Again, he had to leap out of the way of another volley of kunai. Calling her his friend still was unacceptable to her. A few tears were already falling from his eyes. But, his hands took hold of his twin tonfa, normally stowed safely at his sides. He held them so that the shaft of the tonfa were along his arms, the neutral position. As soon as they were out, he whipped them around, deflecting two more surprise kunai.

"Oh, so you're actually doing something?"

"I can't let you do this! We're family! We shouldn't have to fight!" His grip loosened on the tonfa, and the long end of the batons were hanging straight towards the ground. Mizuki's teeth ground together, and he tried to keep his tears back. "Stop this now, Kisa!" As he yelled, he looked up, his blue eyes almost looking like they were on fire. "We're brother and sister, and I know we love each other, so stop this right now! I don't care if this means I can't be a shinobi, but I won't kill you!"

"Fool! Are you just going to give up on everything you've worked for?" Again, she threw another pair of kunai, which we somewhat easily deflected by Mizuki's tonfa. "You're just going to give up on your dreams, and disgrace the family, all because you can't fight your own sister?" Reaching back into her sleeves, she found she was out of kunai. But then again, she didn't need them.

"You're going to die today, aren't you, sister? Even if I don't win this fight. . ." The tears were now completely visible. There was no way his sister would act like this. She was too nice to be like this. Her death could be the only reason she would ever try to provoke him into killing her. Euthanasia. "I remember. . . That guy they brought in from the fight with Konohagakure a few days ago. He had cuts all over his body, and his arms had to be amputated. But, he didn't live though it. There have been people in worse conditions who have come out alive, yet this guy was dead after only a half of a hour." His fists clenched the handles of the tonfa tightly, the knuckles under the gloves turning white. "They killed him, didn't they? Disabled ninja are just killed, because they're considered useless, aren't they?" His voice was strengthening, but there was still the quivering pain in his voice.

"That's not entirely right, Mizuki." Her voice hadn't softened, there wasn't even a little smile on her face. "They have to kill us. Without full function, we are too weak to keep from being captured. If we were, we'd be in danger of revealing out secrets to the enemy villages. If it weren't for you, I'd be dead, and my name on the memorial to the ninja who died protecting this village. But, I asked if I could remain, so that I could train you as my replacement, and be your opponent for this test. They agreed reluctantly, as long as I didn't tell you about this test until you actually took it. Yes, I will die, regardless of the results. Now you know what you have to do! Don't let me die without having served my purpose!"

"I-I understand. . ." He wiped up some of his tears and steeled his face to a stoic expression. But, Mizuki's eyes still gave away his true feelings. "I'll kill you, so that you can fulfill your last wish. . . I love you, Kisa-chan! If I can, I'll see you when I die. That is, if I go up there too. . ." Mizuki took a step forward and began to rush at his sister, holding back one hand, ready to strike with the tonfa.

Kisa wove hand seals quicker than Mizuki could follow, and by the time he had taken one step, she was already done with her jutsu. Snow began to fall over the battlefield, gradually growing heavier until it was a torrent of snow. By that time, he was swinging with the tonfa, aiming for her temple. But, her wheelchair, and Kisa herself, disappeared from his range completely. His tonfa broke through a fragile clump of snow, her replacement shattering into mere flakes under the tonfa's power. "No knockouts." She said from behind him, a needle suddenly piercing into his shoulder. "You have to kill me." One of her jutsu that earned her the name Fubuki had just ripped into him. Her ice needle technique, the Hyoshou was probably her most precise and powerful jutsu. Making it all the worse, Kisa hadn't put much into that one which was why it only dug into him.

"Don't worry about that! I will!" Mizuki had suddenly changed. No longer was he the happy-go-lucky punk who used his jutsu to play little pranks on the teachers. He now was trying all he could to prove he was a ninja, just like his sister. "Forgive me!" The kid yelled as he tossed his tonfa up into the air, suddenly reaching around into his jacket. Each time his hand went in, it came out shortly after, chucking a double-bladed kunai at his sister. The second proctor counted a full thirty kunai before he ran out, even before the first one was halfway to it's destination.

She wasn't intimidated as she summoned up another jutsu. This time, swallows made of ice rushed from her hands, suicidally smashing into each of the kunai, diverting them off course and off the platform, down into the deep waters below. Not only did they deflect his entire barrage, they also swept through the air and took his tonfa away from him while they fell towards his hands, again landing them in the cold blue below them. And to make it worse, they looped back, coming for him.

Mizuki managed to barely run away from them, a hole as big as him opening up in the now seemingly fragile wood ring. And again they came out from the bottom of the ring this time, heading for his chest. Falling back, he took one to the stomach, and another to the arm. One more had made it's mark across his cheek, but was only a shallow cut. The birds of ice dropped lifelessly after that assault, making small splashes of water where they fell.

He felt another barrage of birds coming, as she wove signs that poured out more of those infamous ice swallows. In that moment, Mizuki felt his chakra move to his feet, and the world became a total blur as he moved. Everything moved in slow motion as Mizuki did the only thing he could hope to do in order to beat his sister. The next instant passed, and Kisa's wheelchair was being pierced by her own swallows, taking the place of Mizuki's body. Because the wheelchair was tougher than a normal human body, the swallows all exploded on impact. It was now useless scrap.

Kisa sat up, stunned at the sudden loss of her chair. Now she had nothing for mobility. Mizuki was staring her down, reaching behind his back again. "You're out of ammo, Mizuki." Her sign weaving began anew, this time for the needle attack she used on him during his tonfa rush. She lost sight of her target as a large white sheet rose between them. It was the snow camouflage that Mizuki carried around with him. It was now a shroud to conceal their movements.

Mizuki's agonized voice pierced the sudden silence as two holes were made in the sheet with lightning fast movements. As the sheet fell, there was a blood stain on the surface, where an object had gone through. He fell to the ground, falling back from an impact to the chest. His screams of agony were almost the sweetest thing Jinto had ever heard. But when he looked over, the annoying boy was still alive. There was a needle of ice, broken over Mizuki's heart, where his pendant had been at the time of impact. Normally, the needle would have easily pierced it.

When Mizuki looked over, he saw his sister lying motionless on the ground, the kunai she had thrown into his leg, now in her forehead. Sure enough, she was dead, which was why the needle shattered. Without her chakra, it had no power. "Kisa! Kisa!" Mizuki tried crawling to his sister, but couldn't find the strength. "Kisa-chan. . ." His stumbling got his to his blanket, which he gripped tightly, holding it over the deep wound in his leg. She had given him no sweet last words, no encouragement for the future. Kisa had just died on him.

The snow still fell upon the two, dying itself red with their blood. And the blanket, held firmly over his wound, was slowly turning crimson. His fist hit the wooden platform, letting the blanket fall to the bloody snow. "I-I'm sorry!" He yelled, his tears falling freely. Each drop was freezing before it hit the snow, a tiny droplet of ice piercing though the blood-soaked surface below.

Gripping the blanket again, he crawled over to her, falling at her side. She looked like a total mess, with streams of blood running from the wound, down her once beautiful face. He had been responsible for ruining her, killing her. His hands slowly touched her cheek, instantly recoiling as if they had been freezing cold. Mizuki placed his hand over her eyes and closed them, sealing off her ice blue gaze forever. One last kiss was placed on her forehead, and after that, he draped the blanket over her dead body. "Kisa," His voice was barely a whisper, choked with his tears, "I'm sorry, I love you. . . And. . . And. . ."

"Good-bye."

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I plan on this being a one shot...

But I might continue it...


End file.
